Taoiseach ‘shocked’ by nursing home abuse uncovered in RTÉ investigation

Micheál Martin says damning evidence of poor treatment and understaffing amounts to 'fundamental abuse of senior citizens'

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said early reports from the programme were alarming. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

The Taoiseach has said he is "very, very concerned" about care practices in nursing homes.

Micheál Martin was speaking ahead of an RTÉ Investigates programme airing tonight, which exposes dire conditions in some privately run facilities.

The programme, Inside Ireland’s Nursing Homes, features reporters going undercover at two homes: The Residence in Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in north Dublin. It details a litany of disturbing practices, including:

• A man being refused a toilet break for 25 minutes due to chronic understaffing 
• A resident repeatedly left in an unchanged incontinence pad despite being able to use the toilet and having requests to do so denied 
• “Fake” activity logs created to show residents engaged in pursuits that never occurred

When asked in Dublin today whether it was acceptable for facilities charging between €1,320 and €1,514 per week to treat older patients this way, Mr Martin said early reports from the programme were alarming.

"I'm very, very concerned about it. I think it's shocking what is likely to be revealed following the reports I've seen so far," he said.

"I've observed two professors with considerable experience in geriatric medicine and dermatology express their shock and also their very clear observations that this is fundamentally abuse of senior citizens in those nursing homes."

Mr Martin said the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), which oversees nursing homes, is "doing a lot of work to ensure compliance" and has already engaged with the homes featured in the programme.

The Taoiseach also noted that the number of people in nursing homes is declining as a proportion of the overall population.

"In other words, the policies of home care, the policies of enhancing collective capacity of people to stay at home and to stay out of nursing homes for longer periods, means we have to double down on those policies in terms of home care solutions, in terms of healthcare lifestyle and so on.

"So that's working, but that said, there will be times when people who've no option but to go to nursing homes. And it should be the best possible experience."

The investigation also shows staff at both facilities ignoring care plans for frail residents, which state that residents should only be moved using hoists. 

Instead, staff are seen manually lifting residents by their arms or trouser belts — actions explicitly forbidden under manual handling protocols.